I would like to turn the attention to the exciting years of 50cc racing.As a result of boys toying with their first form of motorized transportation, the need for speed eventually led to organized racing and a world championship.

I´m sure most of you can recognize this Itom- riding superstar , but where and when ?

Sorry, I could not tell you who the rider is, or where, but I am sure TNF (Picblanc?) will furnish you with this info, you did however, remind me of the days at Brands when I was almost deafened regularly, by a grid full of these machines, which had to be seen to be believed (......and heard!!!)

I would like to turn the attention to the exciting years of 50cc racing.As a result of boys toying with their first form of motorized transportation, the need for speed eventually led to organized racing and a world championship.

I´m sure most of you can recognize this Itom- riding superstar, but where and when?

I would like to turn the attention to the exciting years of 50cc racing.
As a result of boys toying with their first form of motorized transportation, the need for speed eventually led to organized racing and a world championship.

Spanning Mike's career from his days as a novice in the mid-1950s to his late-1970s comeback, this wonderful collection ranges from what is believed to be his first ever trophy, awarded at Blandford on 10 June 1957 for a 3rd place finish on a 50cc Itom

The Itom had a cast-iron cylinder that got really hot with hard use. So the use of a shroud to keep airflow concentrated around it was relatively common.
For some reason, the Itom became the most popular 50cc racer by the year 1961, while it was quite obvious that the Kreidlers were simply much faster. In fact a bone-stock Kreidler Florett "mockick" 4-speed touring bike would absolutely clean the clock of the 3-speed Itom Super Sport...
Even when the new Itom 4-speed came out in 1962, by that time it was simply obsolete. Both Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Jean-Claude Serre ran Itoms, but first the Spanish Ducson, then the Derbi came and won just about everything in France where the Sport and Course classes were well attended. In 1963, the Derbi Sport fitted with a proper expansion chamber was cleaning house in the sport class as well as the specially prepared Kreidler Florett of the French distributor Leconte, driven by the late Claude Vigreux. In the Course ("GP") class, the Derbis were untouchable. The Itoms were nowhere near the top anymore. In Germany, if you did not have a Kreidler, you did not stand a chance to win.

Emerson's Benelli is running way too much oil in the mixture...
And what is that mysterious (and apprently HEAVY) twin? Someone put a lot of work in it... and the old Del'Orto-like carbs look huge for a 50occ.

Ducson made a whole line of Itom-inspired (but not licenced) 50cc motorcycles (moped as well as non-moped) until going out of business in the late 1970's. Ducson was based, as Derbi, in the same suburb of Barcelona called Mollet del Valles. Ducson bikes were successfully driven to many national-level wins in 1961 and 1962 especially in France.

Picture courtesy of Cybermotorcycle.com

Pictures of the actual road racers with fairing are quite rare but I have a small color shot I took at Monthlery at the end of 1961 that I will scan and post. The racing version with fairly crude alloy faitings developed 7HP at 13000 RPM and had a 4-speed box and a Spanish-built Bing carburetor. They were good for 90MPH.Juan Garcia finished 6th at the 1963 Spanish GP at Montjuich. That was the zenith of the Ducson racing adventure.

I had the priviledge of racing a Ducson at the French GP at Rouen in 1965, and my friend Denis Dayan also raced a Ducson in the production ("Sport") class in France in 1964. Unfortunately for Ducson, they were hopelessly uncompetitive with the much-more powerful Derbi machinery designed by a true genius of two-stroke design as well as chassis design, Francisco Tombas.

Looks like the Tohatsu, or could it be the first version of the road-going Bridgestone?

Francisco Tombas was in his mid-30's in 1964, I met him then and purchased a whole slew of parts for my own Derbi GP bike, only to be caught at the border and fined heavily by the French customs and spending the night in jail with a guy caught carrying a gun. Morality: always hide the invoices where they can't find them, mail them to yourself! Happy days then...

So is this twin, Dutch? And who built it? The frame looks like an Italjet job...

Yes indeed the picture is of Jose Busquets, who surprised everyone (well, almost everyone...) by leading the Spanish GP on front of all the works Suzuki, Honda and Kreidler by nearly a minute when one lap from winning it, one of the two rear shock absorbers broke and that was it for the day. That day at Montjuich, the air-cooled 8-speed Derbi was the world's fastest moped!

Busquets later won against Anscheidt on the works Kreidler at Malaga, also beating his team mate Salvador Canellas.
There is little doubt in my mind that during 1962 through 1965, Derbi had the fastest 50cc racers, but reliability was marginal due to the use of Spanish-only materials such as Borgo pistons that constantly seized or collapsed. If they had more freedom to import decent alloys (forbidden under Franco's regime), the story of Suzuki and Honda winning the 50cc class could have been very different.

The Derbi was not that cheap then, but the Kreidler did not offer any "kit" parts until 1968 in the form of the RS engine kit. Derbi offered two versions of their machines, a "production-racer" for the French "Sport" class, and a "Carrera-Cliente" as a full GP machine patterned after the 1962 model used by Jacques Roca at Clermond-Ferrand to win the first international race for Derbi.The "Sport" version had a cast-iron cylinder, an 18mm Del'Lorto carb and expansion chamber. It produced 7HP at 12000RPM. The "Carrera-Cliente" had a small triangular seat and a fairing, an alloy-finned cylinder with a cast-iron liner, more radical porting and a very usable 9HP. The "Sport" version could reach 120KM/H while the true racer was good for 150KM/H. Both had the 5-speed box and wet clutch. The price was FF1200.00 for the "Sport" and FF2300.00 for the "Carrera-Cliente". A STOCK, road-going Kreidler was FF1900.00, and the RS kit FF900.00. Then, one had to do all the cycle parts on the Kreidler, including a build of a tubular Earles-type front suspension, while the Derbis came with vented drum brakes, proper telescopic forks and decent shocks. I raced both and no doubt that the Kreidler handled better but the Derbi was simply faster and had better brakes. However, while the Kreidler was a model or utter reliability with its Nikasil cylinder and forged piston (the VERY first EVER in motorcycle racing), the Derbi suffered from continual seizures due to their poor cast pistons. So winning a race with a Derbi also involved keeping it together. Never such a concern with the Kreidlers. Bultacos of course suffered of the same problems as the Derbi, and Kreidler had a special engine built for Hans Anscheidt's Bultaco TSS 125cc, using a forged Mahle piston, nikasil coated cylinder wall and better crank bearings. What they could not improve was the primary chain drive that kept snapping all the time until Bultaco introduced their gear-driven primary drive on the water-cooled TSS in 1967. Below is a rare picture of the dyno room at Derbi in Mollet del Valles, taken in 1968. Frem left to right are Andres Rabasa, the president of the company, next to Francisco Tombas and Angel Nieto:

That's what they had! Hard to argue with success anyway, because they ended winning quite a few championships and races... Other 50cc had primary chain drives. I recall the Derbi did, and so did the Ducson.

Here is a picture of one of the mopeds that started it all, the Itom "Astor" of 1960:

Note that the dumb bicycle pedals were there strictly mandated by law with a big "L", since typical stupid Euro-regulations were already in place in France, Italy and Germany to restrict these vehicles from going over 50KM/H (and of course one needs a set of bycicle pedals to do that, don't they? : ), which of course most greatly exceeded, the Itom good for 90MK/H already. The young riders quickly unbolted the useless (and dangerous!) pedals, sometimes confronted by the brain-dead gendarme requiring a re-fitting of the devices. To make the bikes safer while cornering, we used to attach the pedals in horizontal mode with a rubber sandow. Those were the days, us in small gangs roaming the streets flat-out, no helmets, emulating our heroes Surtees, Ubbiali and Duke, already rubbing our toes on the greasy pavement... Then, the European Cup began and changed all of it, with us kids now able to RACE these things on regular circuits. That was great news for all. Well, we DID survive, did we not?

50km/h ! You were lucky living in France. In Denmark it is 30km/h. Restrictions were very small carbs, as small as 9mm on some models. Goal was an output of 1hp!

My favorite the Honda CD50 were restricted with a smaller cam, a 5,5mm restrictor in cylinder head intake, and an ignition retarding device!

That made the otherwise lively Honda (5,25hp in German version) the slowest moped marketed here in DK.
A slow slow acceleration up to the point where the cam took command, just to fall on its nose due to the mechanical ignition retard ! They really made a mess of that one.

There was a Guazzoni with disc valve racing in France, driven by a huge (very nice) fellow called Le Toumelin. It was not fast enough to challenge the Kreidler RS that had pretty much taken over by that time.

The one I raced was the "official" works "Sports" bike entered by Leconte, previously driven by the late Claude Vigreux.
Only finished 2nd in the championship because Derbi had entered a virtual GP bike in the class, only fitted with lights to be "legal". I could not compete witrh that one, but placed in second all year long.

I also drove Vigreux's works 12-speed but not in competition. I was with him when this was brought back to Unterturkheim and CRUSHED at the works...
Made me sick to my stomach.